Blood Lines
by BetterThanCoffee
Summary: Evil is in Zuko's blood, and he is not sure if he can ever escape that fact. Post-Western Air Temple.


Aang had led Appa away from the group at the Western Air Temple to give the massive, ten-ton flying bison some room to workout. The young monk ran his fingers through Appa's fur, enjoying the sensation of the rough strands of hair sliding across his skin. Appa was his oldest friend in the world, and just seeing Appa while living in this new, strange time was sometimes enough to ground Aang to keep him from sliding into the dark memories of his past. Aang would be lost without his familiar, and was grateful every day for the soothing presence the bison granted him.

Aang was so wrapped up in his own musings, that he failed to notice Zuko approach him from behind. Having just joined their group after months of being pursued by the prince, even with his promise to teach Aang firebending, it was jarring just to be around the firebender without engaging in some sort of battle. The others in their group felt it too, even Toph, who had the least amount of history with Zuko, and in turn, Aang had noticed Zuko isolating himself more and more.

Initially, Zuko tried his hardest to integrate himself into the group, but after a few stifled conversations, and the ever-present murderous glare sent by Katara, Zuko's stilted words grew silent, and his shadow no longer fell across the fire pit. Aang would lying if he said he did not feel a bit relieved that he no longer had to attempt to play extra-friendly with the banished prince. With the hatred coming off of Katara in waves, Aang had been trying extremely hard to convince Katara that this was the best ideal in their situation.

Once Appa noticed the prince, he immediately lumbered over to give him a slobbery lick across the face. Appa obviously had enough love towards Zuko for the rest of them, and Zuko constantly found himself wiping bison spit off of his person. The teenager found it easier to not try to ward off the bison, after all, no one wants a ten-ton monster after your blood. After sufficiently making sure he was clean, his hair now standing up from the gel that was bison saliva, Zuko reached a thin, pale up to stroke the bison across the nose. As Appa grumbled contently, Aang shifted back and forth on his feet, not quite sure what to make out of the situation.

"So, the weather's nice," Aang finally broke, trying to find some conversation to fill the awkward void that was threatening to overwhelm to the young monk.

"Yeah," Zuko replied noncommittally, continuing his administrations on Appa.

Aang sighed inwardly with frustration. The airbender had no idea what to make of the firebender. Zuko was cold, standoffish, and aloof, and yet he seemed to want their approval more than anything else. Aang never had any trouble making friends, so the rocky relationship between Zuko and the avatar was troubling. To be honest, the fire prince was perplexing. Aang considered himself a good judge of character, and once even thought that Zuko and him could be friends, yet Zuko was so closed off to the external world from his own internal battles, that Aang could not read head or tails on the teenager.

"Do you think evil is hereditary?" Zuko finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"What?" Aang blinked his grey eyes owlishly at the other boy.

Zuko exhaled through his nose, his left hand unconsciously reaching up to touch the large scar that marred nearly half of his face. "My great-grandfather Sozin took over the entire world, wiping out your people. My grandfather Azulon set up the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom, subjecting their people to indentured servitude. My father, Fire Lord Ozai, is just a tyrant. He kills and tortures people just because he can."

Zuko stopped his speech, as if realizing whom he was talking to. Aang waited patiently. In his experience, the monk has found that if people needed to talk, it would come out eventually.

"I just look back at what my family has done, what I have done, and I wonder what destiny has in store for me."

"Destiny is whatever you make of it," Aang started, leaning against Appa to get comfortable. "We can't let what the world expects us to do to lead out lives."

"This coming from the avatar," Zuko mumbled, clearly displeased. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"I didn't always want to be the avatar," Aang confessed before Zuko could walk away. "I went against what the world was telling me, and ran away. That's how I ended up here."

Aang could tell that Zuko did not believe him, and to be honest, Aang wasn't sure if he believed his words either. It was different for him, after all. He was the avatar. He had a responsibility to fulfill, and it was his destiny to stop Fire Lord Ozai before Sozin's Comet, yet Zuko was not bound by the same expectations. He had defected from the Fire Nation and was trying to make amends. Zuko had his whole life ahead of him to create his own destiny, and Aang hoped that the other boy would realize this.

"Evil is in my blood." Zuko sat beside Appa, and leaned his head back to pillow against the bison's foot. "No matter which way you look at it, evil is in my blood and will always be in my blood, and I am not sure if I can ever make up for that fact."

"Is your mother evil?" Aang asked innocently, not knowing the can of worms that is Zuko's past he was opening up. The airbender knew nothing of Zuko's own personal family drama, and yet somehow, his kind wisdom was able to pierce Zuko's resolve in the most painful of manners.

"No," Zuko stammered, "she was kind. She was perfect."

Aang walked over to Zuko, where he was still nestled into the bison's paw, smiling down at Zuko with a grin brighter than one-thousand suns. "There you go!" Aang thrust his hands in the air. "You have your mother's blood in you, too."

Aang left Zuko with his thoughts. Zuko had loved his mother more than life itself, but he avoided thinking about the woman as it caused him too much pain. His mother, Ursa, was beautiful, gentle, and always had time to listen to Zuko. She was everything that Ozai was not.

For Zuko's entire life, the entire Fire Nation him expected him to be exactly like his father. Even Zuko himself forgot he had some of his mother in him, too. While Ursa never expressed any distaste towards Fire Nation politics, Zuko could remember a quiet unrest that always seemed to follow his mother. At the dinner table, whenever Ozai would talk about some Earth Kingdom village he had burned to the ground, Zuko could see the skin around his mother's eyes tightening. Even if she had never said anything, Zuko could see the dissatisfaction in his mother.

Zuko knew his mother favored him over his sister. Azula was always so brash and abrasive, she immediately meshed with their father. A task Zuko himself was never able to accomplish. Zuko could remember a time, when he was about seven years old, in which he first realized his father's own cruelty and disgust towards his own son.

Zuko had been playing in the garden with a fabric doll he had pilfered out of Azula's room. Azula had a nasty habit of ripping the limbs off of her dolls, until all they were left with were their heads. Zuko would wince at the display, and liberated this particular doll from Azula's clutches. This doll had the same dark hair and fine features of his mother, and every time he imagined Azula dismembering this toy, he could only see his mother in its place.

Zuko was so lost in his own world of imagination, that when he spotted his father walking across the garden, the young prince forgot his place, and called out to him.

"Daddy! Come play with me!"

Ozai's head whipped around so fast, Zuko was surprised it didn't spin right off his neck. His yellow eyes pierced his eldest child, as he approached the boy at a sedate pace.

"You want to play?" Ozai sneered, plucking the doll from the ground between two fingers. Zuko prayed that Ozai did not recognize it as one of Azula's. "You are barely a firebender, and you want to waste your time playing with a _doll?"_

Ozai's fist clenched around the doll, so identical to Zuko's own mother, and the toy immediately burst into flames. Orange and yellow tongues snaked upwards and licked at the doll's face, melting its beautiful features into a horrific mimicry of an anguished scream. Zuko let out of yelp, and jumped to his feet to try to relinquish the toy from his father's grasp. Ozai merely held the doll above Zuko's head until all there was left was ash and still lit embers raining down upon the prince's head.

"Go practice your firebending stances. Azula is younger, and yet she possesses far greater power than you can ever hope to achieve. Do NOT continue to disappoint me." Zuko watched his father turn his back on him, leaving the boy there, covered in soot and tears.

The memory might seem insignificant in the lifetime of abuse Zuko faced at Ozai's own hand, but it was the first time that Zuko felt really burnt by his father's actions. His father had said himself that he held Azula at a higher standard than Zuko, an impossible goal that Zuko would spend the rest of his life chasing. Seeing the doll burning in Ozai's hand was like watching his own childhood and innocence burning away. After that moment, Zuko never played alone in the garden again.

Zuko tried to shake the remnants of the memory out of his head, burrowing deeper into Appa. Appa practically purred at the sensation, and somehow, that cheered up Zuko even more than Aang's own attempt. Animals judged people indiscriminately, and if Appa thought Zuko wasn't bad, that had to count for something.

"Evil might be in my blood," Zuko spoke those words out loud to himself, "but so is good. I am not just my father's son."

Appa let out a loud bellow, as if affirming Zuko's own statement, and without knowing why, Zuko was suddenly overcome with the sudden urge to cry. Even while leaving the Fire Nation, warring with Fire Lord Ozai, and seeking out the avatar, the realization that Zuko was leaving behind his own family, his own father, never hit him until now.

The banished prince had already lost his mother, and now he had lost his sister and father. Ozai and Azula were cruel and malicious, and never showed any mercy towards Zuko or anyone else, but they were still his family. Now they were gone from him forever, and regardless on how this war ended, Zuko knew he could never go back.

Looking Appa in his gigantic eye, Zuko knew that he wasn't alone. Even if wasn't yet accepted into their group, he had the avatar and all of his friends. The firebender would keep trying to make amends towards the kids, and maybe one day, they would be friends. Even if they never reached a stage where they would be comfortable around each other, sharing jokes, their forgiveness would be enough.

Once the war was over, Zuko would seek out his uncle. Iroh had absolutely no reason to forgive his nephew, and Zuko was not under any illusion that he even had the right. Yet, Zuko would try. The last several years in his banishment, Zuko had built his own family without even realizing it. Once the war was over, he would try his best to repair it.


End file.
